A 5426 New Jersey General Assembly · 2024-2025 Regular Session

Requires State domestic violence public awareness campaign to add information on coercive control; requires annual reporting on activities of campaign and expands range of languages.

This bill (A 5426) amends New Jersey's domestic violence public awareness campaign to require inclusion of information about coercive control - a pattern of controlling behavior often used in abusive relationships - and expands the languages available for campaign materials. The campaign, managed by the Division on Women in the Department of Children and Families, must now cover coercive control (defined in existing law) alongside other topics like prevention and victim services. It also mandates annual reporting to the Governor and Legislature on campaign activities and requires materials to be available in English, Spanish, and additional languages recommended by the Advisory Council on Domestic Violence. The bill directly affects state agencies administering the campaign and aims to improve public and professional awareness of domestic violence dynamics.
Sub-Topics: Domestic Violence
Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
May 2025
General Assembly Passage
Mar 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Feb 27, 2025 Last action May 12, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version Reprint AJU 3/10/25 1R · 4 edits
MODERATE
The bill was amended by the Assembly Judiciary Committee on March 10, 2025. Two substantive changes were made: a funding contingency was added to the requirement that the domestic violence public awareness campaign include information on coercive control indicators, and a new provision was added ensuring that acceptance of external grants does not reduce state-appropriated funds for the campaign.
REQUIREMENT

Subsection b(2) now includes the phrase 'subject to the availability of funds' before the requirement to include recognition of coercive control indicators in the public awareness campaign. This makes that specific content conditional on budget rather than mandatory.

FISCAL

A new sentence was added to subsection f stating that the director's acceptance of external grants, services, or property shall not diminish any State funds appropriated to the public awareness campaign. This protects state funding from being offset by outside money.

TECHNICAL

The entire explanatory statement section (which described the bill's purpose and listed the seven indicators of coercive control) was removed from the reprint version, likely because it is maintained as a separate document in the legislative process.

Co-sponsors Assemblywoman Swain and Assemblyman Tully were added to the bill header, reflecting committee action on March 10, 2025.

Floor votes · General Assembly Mar 24, 2025

How they voted

780
Passed · 2 other
Total votes 80
Mar 24, 2025
D Democratic52
51 Yea 1
98% Yea
R Republican28
27 Yea 1
96% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
4
Key actions
2
Committee
2
May 12, 2025
Committee
Received in the Senate, Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee
upper
Mar 24, 2025
Lower · Passed
Passed Assembly (78-0-0)
lower
Mar 10, 2025
Lower · Passed
Reported out of Assembly Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading
lower
Feb 27, 2025
Introduced
Introduced in the Assembly, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee
lower
3 primary · 2 co-sponsors

Sponsors